ANALYSIS OF CONSUMERS' PERCEPTION TOWARDS SAFETY WHILE PURCHASING A CAR.

Abstract

The automobile sector in India was established in 1980s with the advent of multinational automakers such as Suzuki, Toyota and Hyundai. As the liberalization began, many companies initiated JVs with incumbent Indian companies. Since then the number of automobile companies, offerings, price range, features and quality of offerings have seen multi fold increase. But it seems both the regulatory body and carmakers have overlooked to enhance the safety standards and features of cars produced in the nation. Deaths due to road accidents have been extremely high in India. Since 2006, 230000 people have died annually in India. The road deaths per year in India is more than any other nation. Hence, Indian automotive safety standards have drawn a lot of flak and are considered as insufficient and ineffective. Despite being the world's fifth largest car market, India is the only market among top ten global car markets without new car safety regulations or crash testing programs. GNCAP had to import some of the top selling Indian cars to expose the dismal safety levels of these cars. They tested popular Indian cars and reports showed how unsafe they are with high chances of major injuries to the occupants in case of a crash. After the GNCAP reports the government rose from slumber and instituted Bharat New Car Assessment Program which will give safety ratings to cars produced in India. These ratings will be based on performance of safety features installed in the car during crash tests. They will be enforced from late 2017 and Indian consumers will continue to be at risk till then. Carmakers said that their cars abide with the safety regulations of the country. The Indian regulation for crash test is the same as UN’s regulation for the crash test. But when GNCAP executed the crash tests based on UN regulation some of the cars failed miserably. The GNCAP crash test reports clearly raised a question mark on the safety regulations and its implementation in the country. Moreover, some of the cars tested are also exported to European countries and Japan. These countries have strict safety regulations and unsafe cars cannot be sold. This means that the cars exported meet the safety standards while those produced for domestic consumption are unsafe.